On May 15, 2003
the Metropolitan College of New York, joined by the
sponsoring organizations the Century Foundation, Center for Urban Research for Public
Policy and Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and
Regional Research, issued a report on "People and Poliics in America's Big
Cities: A Critical Conversation about the Implications of
the Profound Demographic Transformation Now Underway in our City."
Authored by John Logan of the Mumford Center and John Mollenkopf of
the Cente for Urban Research, the report provides several
recommendations for how to close the widening representation gap in America's
increasingly diverse urban areas.

Among the recommendations are
several involving the electoral process. One recommendation is in
support of instant runoff voting. They write "New York City also
provides many examples from 2001 in which a white or native minority
candidate with better funding and organizational support was able to
edge out immigrant minority candidates who split the district's
immigrant voting base several different ways. In Los Angeles, if no
candidates wins a majority, the two top candidates proceed to a
runoff in the general election. New York City may with to reconsider
allowing candidates to win primaries by a simple plurality. A system
of 'instant runoff' voting would enable new immigrant votes to
transfer their voting strengthe from one immigrant minority
candidates to another, thus increasing their ability to elect a
candidate of their choosing."

Other parts of the report
implicitly suggest the value of full representation voting methods
that allow for differences among voters to be represented even when
racial and ethnic groups live amongst one another rather than in
segregated housing patters. You can read the report on-line at www.drummajorinstitute.org